On our mooring in Vero Beach, Flutterby usually hangs bow to the wind, gently hunting back and forth from one “tack” to the other.  When there is no wind she faces a random direction, only moving when we walk about inside.  But most days there is a breeze, and Flutterby spins back and forth, and sunbeams come through portlights and hatches to walk back and forth across the opposite wall, or our berth.

Yesterday, a little barge was working its way through the mooring field.  Eventually it came up next to Flutterby to inspect our mooring.  I’m one of those guys who likes work, and as they say, I can watch it all day.  In that spirit, I had a conversation with the guys on the barge while one of them dove down to inspect our mooring anchor. I found out that we were on an old-style mooring with a ten foot long concrete piling — buried completely under the mud and shell bottom, with a chain going from it up through the float at the surface. Flutterby’s bow is tied to a ring on the end of the chain, free to spin around and hang whichever way the wind or current sends her.

Since the wind was always coming from the bow, on any breezy day I could open the companionway and the forward-facing hatch in the V-berth, and fresh air would blast straight in through the cabin.  This is great if somebody just started to scorch things on the stove and you want to clear the air before the smoke alarm goes off.  (Don’t ask me how I know!)

But today, all this changed. I motored for less than an hour to Flutterby‘s new home on a dock.  It sure is convenient to not have a 5-10 minute dinghy ride (with its high risk of a wet butt) in order to go anywhere or do anything. In fact, I took a bike ride in my new neighborhood just for the fun of it, something I never got around to doing when the bike was a dinghy ride away.

Living in a place that is tied down at 4 corners, unable to move, is just weird!  Now the sunbeams only make one very slow transit per day. And the wind: It blows whatever direction it wants to, possibly from the starboard side of the boat all day. It is just plain weird, and that is all I can say about it!